William Jackson
Raleigh,#2Consumer Comment
Mon, February 22, 2010
I had a similar experience - signed up for the mall and then got the call from WebTech Strategies from a person who said he was Michael Micheli. He first asked questions about my financial status to see how much I would "qualify" for in advertising. The options given were for a 12 month contract; $14,995 for 3 Million visitors - $10K plus revenue per month, $12,500 for 2.4 million visitors - $8-9K per month, $9,995 for 1.7 million visitors - $7 to 8 K per month. After my resisting, he brought out lower options for $4,995 and $3,800. I was told that referral sales would be credited to my account which would likely cover the advertising costs alone.
Fortunately I did some further investigation. The web site was not impressive, but I did a search on the company and found multiple entries, including this helpful site, which had nothing but scam comments.
I feel embarrassed that I was seriously considering investing in one of the cheaper packages.
Jack
East Patchogue,#3Consumer Comment
Fri, January 29, 2010
It started with a phone call from a woman who went by the name of Linda Valez calling from ShopFreedomOnline. When I answered the phone, she introduced herself and the company she was with and said she noticed I was interested in thier website and asked me how I would like to get started in a home based business oppurtunity. Now being that I had previously looked for some home based oppurtunity programs online, I realized I must have filled out ShopFreedomOnline's registration form. I also realized the company must have recieved my information and phone number when I must have send it. At this point I was still a little skeptical but thought to myself... if I don't try it, I'll never know if it works or not, so I continued to let Linda speak. She told me the company was a product of Fortune 500 and she was reassuring me I will make money, I was still undecided at this point but she kept convincing me. I asked her how does it work and she told me I would have my own website set up with a chain of popular stores such as Sears, Kmart, Petco and whole list of other name stores ranging from jewelery to electronics and I would make a 20% commision for every item sold through my website. She told me all I would have to do is send $250.00 to purchase the website and then additional charges to set it up and have it running with advertisment included and I would have a coach to get me started, so I went for it.
After paying the $250.00 dollars, a few days later, the coach calls me up and this time its from WebTech Strategies. He told me it would cost me $5,000.00 to get started. Then I realized... what have I gottem myself into? I told the guy five thousand is a little too steep for me, so he cut it down to $2,500 and told me it takes money to make money in which I understand quite well. At this point I was a little hesitant but braved it out and shelled out the twenty five hundred dollars on my credit card. It took a while before the website went up and it would be a three stage campaign with each stage lasting about a month and the total campaign would yield me 120,000 visitors . It was up to me to also do additional advertising, so I did.
After the first stage ended of the campaign and countless hours of my own time doing free advertisment, I get a phone call from WebTech Strategies. Supposely it was my coach Mike and he sounded very perturbed. He told me I was not doing enough with my business to make me money and I am not cutting it. I asked him what about the $2,500.00 I paid for and he got angry to the point he was swearing at me. he said to me unless if I spend more money with them, I am not going to make it. I remember telling him I was doing countless hours of advertising of my own to bring to my website and I cannot afford to shell out more money to until I start making some. I also told him he had an attitude problem and I wish to talk to someone else the next time.
After the incident with Mike, I worked even harder and spent hundreds of dollars more on additional advertisments and free advertisments for my website. I finally called WebTechStrategies myself and Jiggs was the next guy I talked to. Jiggs was much more soft spoken and convince me I am right about on track where I ought to me with my campaign. After the campaign had ended, I asked Jiggs when to I get by report results. He said it should be the Thursday of the following week after the Campaign had ended , so that Thursday came and went and still waited. Finally I called Webtech up again and then Jiggs told me it could take two or three weeks before I get the results. I waited a month and nothing. I called Jiggs back up and he told me they did find out about my results and I did not make enough to get a commission, then he went on to say that being I did not make enough to get a commission, they would be nice enough to give me another three staged campaign for free. At this point... I already had enough red flags waved at me to raise suspicion but yet I continued to go along. Even though it was for free, the second campaign came and went and I heard nothing ever since and that was months ago. I am now skeptical and feel something is not right here.